Glossary
How do ebook royalties work?
A royalty is your share of the list price after the store takes its cut. On Amazon there are two ebook bands — 70% and 35% — and which one you get depends on your list price and a set of conditions attached to the higher one.
The two bands
The 70% band applies within a list-price window — on Amazon, historically $2.99 to $9.99 — and comes with conditions: the price must not undercut the same book elsewhere, the book must be available in certain territories, and a delivery fee is deducted from your share based on the size of the file. Price outside the window and you drop to 35%, with no delivery fee.
The consequence is a cliff, not a slope. A book at $9.99 can pay more than the same book at $11.99, because the higher price falls into the lower band. Run the numbers before you price.
See what a price actually pays, including the delivery fee.
Open the calculatorThe delivery fee
Charged per megabyte, on 70% sales only. For a text-only book it is pennies. For an illustrated one — a workbook full of images, a cookbook — it can take a real bite, which is a genuine argument for compressing images before you upload.
Print is calculated differently
A print-on-demand paperback pays a percentage of list price after the printing cost is subtracted, and the printing cost rises with page count. A long book at a low price can pay nothing at all, or be rejected for being priced below its own cost to print.
Related terms
- KDPKDP is Amazon’s free self-publishing platform. You upload a manuscript and a cover, set a price, and the book is on sale in the Kindle store — and, if you want, as a print-on-demand paperback — usually within 72 hours.
- Print on demandPrint on demand means a single copy is printed and shipped only after a customer orders it. There is no print run, no minimum order and no box of unsold books in your hallway — you are paid the difference between the list price and the printing cost.
- DRMDRM is a lock applied to an ebook file that ties it to one store account, so it cannot be copied to another device or app. It is chosen at upload, and on most stores the choice cannot be reversed for that edition.
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